Rain on India’s parade, but Obama visit keeps spirits high | Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama watched a dazzling parade of India’s military might and cultural diversity on Monday, the second day of a visit trumpeted as a chance to establish a robust strategic partnership between the world’s two largest democracies.

It rained on the parade through the heart of New Delhi, but excitement nevertheless ran high over Obama’s landmark visit, which began on Sunday with a clutch of deals and ‘bromance’ bonding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two leaders announced plans to unlock billions of dollars in nuclear trade and to deepen defence ties.

Most significant was an agreement on two issues that, despite a groundbreaking 2006 pact, had stopped U.S. companies from setting up nuclear reactors in India and had become one of the major irritants in bilateral relations.

“Mobama breaks N-deadlock,” the Mail Today newspaper said on its front page, which carried a photograph of Modi and Obama hugging each other warmly.

The bonhomie was a remarkable spectacle, given that a year ago Modi was persona non grata in Washington and was banned from visiting the United States for nearly a decade after deadly Hindu-Muslim riots in a state he governed.

Obama is the first U.S. president to attend India’s Republic Day parade, an annual show of military prowess that was long associated with the anti-Americanism of the Cold War.